E-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. As traditional brick and mortar stores face a knockout blow from the global coronavirus pandemic, ecommerce businesses seem to be thriving and engulfing the retail world.
Between January 2019 and June 2020, ecommerce platforms underwent unprecedented global traffic. According to Statista, retail ecommerce platforms generated nearly 22 billion website visits in June 2020. This is undoubtedly due to the ongoing pandemic, which has forced consumers to avoid crowded stores and procure everyday items online.
As most new businesses are gravitating towards the appeal of having a web presence, competition is becoming increasingly tougher. While brick and mortar stores no longer pose a significant threat to ecommerce businesses, other online ventures do present a problem. Statistics indicate that there are around 24 million ecommerce websites worldwide, a harbinger of increasing online competition for online startups.
However, a crowded space also indicates existing demand, making the ecommerce world an exciting place to be. To hit it big online, it is necessary to have the right marketing data and know the right ecommerce strategies.
Here are five important measures you can take to ensure that you stay on top of the competition.
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Establish a distinct niche:
It is not wise to sell and excel at everything in the online world. Ecommerce businesses need to participate in a niche market to increase their chances of success. Create a distinct niche based on the customer’s interests, needs, lifestyle, and aspirations.
For instance, if you offer a skin-care product with the same ingredients as your competitors, it will be very difficult for you to stand out. However, you can weed out the competition by offering an organic skin-care product with unique health benefits. It’ll be easier for you to market a unique product and create a demand for it.
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Perform a Competitor Analysis:
The online world is rife with competition, even in unique niches. It is crucial to identify competitors in your industry and understand their strategies. Competitor analysis helps you anticipate market shifts and keep up with the changes by making informed decisions. It will also help you to keep track of your competitors and spot the trends that bring them traffic.
To begin your competitor analysis, use a tool like Alexa or Ahrefs to identify key competitors in your niche. Once you identify the competitors, you need to categorize them into the following sections.
- Primary competitors: Primary competitors are those businesses that offer the same products or services to the same audience.
- Secondary competitors: It includes businesses that may sell a high- or low-end of your products and target a different audience.
- Tertiary competitors: Tertiary competitors are those businesses that offer distinctly-related products to the same audience.
After identifying direct and indirect competition, you need to analyze different aspects, such as website, marketing strategies, pricing plan, and more. It is also important to track their social media presence and the way they interact with their customers. Online reviews will help you identify the aspects that customers like or dislike about your competitors.
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Implement the latest SEO trends:
To stay competitive in ecommerce, educate yourself on the latest SEO trends, and implement them on your platform. An effective SEO strategy ensures that your web page ranks higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). However, many ecommerce entrepreneurs find it hard to keep up with the constant algorithm updates.
Review the latest updates to search engine optimization and analyze the guidelines to avoid your ranking being throttled. Offer valuable content with relevant keywords to ensure that your ecommerce website shows up during organic searches.
Keyword research tools like Ubersuggest and Google Adwords Keyword Planner can help you identify optimal keywords and effectively use them in your content. And if you find SEO too much to handle, you can always hire a digital marketing agency to stay in the competition.
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Strategize your pricing:
Setting the right pricing strategy for your product can be a tough balancing act. Price it too high, and you might alienate a significant portion of budget-conscious customers. Pricing the product too low may increase the stream of sales, but without turning any considerable profit.
Pricing is something that most ecommerce business owners struggle with. Ultimately, you need to consider your production costs, market trends, competitor pricing, and revenue goals to stay competitive with pricing.
You can use price-comparison websites and tools like Google Shopping, Shopzilla, and Price Grabber to set up an effective pricing strategy. These tools will help you get intelligence about your product’s current and historical pricing, as well as the pricing of your competitors.
When you have your own and your competitor’s pricing plans at your hand, you are in a much better position to value your products for maximum profit margins.
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Product images and description:
Customers who shop online don’t have the facility to test the product like they do in a physical store. But you can make up for that experience by offering attractive product images. However, product images will not help you go so far if there is no product description detailing the product’s key features and benefits.
A major ingredient to increase your conversion rate is having quality photos and complementing them with SEO optimized product descriptions for ecommerce business. Write a compelling copy that describes the product’s value, benefits, and the problem it solves to generate sales. Similarly, include attractive images from various angles to help customers get a feel for the product.
It’s a wrap:
Selling your products and services online offer numerous opportunities. But standing out in a saturated crowd is harder than it seems. Luckily, you can take a few measures to make it big in the digital landscape.
First, establish a niche and identify the key competitors. Understand their strategies, pricing plan, and how they interact with the audience. Use high-quality visuals and write compelling product descriptions to let users know what you are offering. Finally, work on optimizing your website for a higher ranking. Perform keyword research and add keywords in your content to pull more customers.
AUTHOR BIO
Mary Warner is an enthusiast blogger. Her compelling research and communication capabilities exchange offerings that have value for the reader. Her passion for writing has been an ever-evolving affair. She loves to share her views related to latest trends in marketing, technology, ecommerce, and the like.